JMU - General Education Program

GPHIL 120

If you take GPHIL 120 as your Cluster One
Critical Thinking course, you will get an introduction to the
fundamental tools of critical analysis. More specifically, you will
learn some essentials of logic, which is an abstract, topic-neutral
subject fundamental to every academic discipline. Having learned some
of the basics of logic, you will learn a variety of practical
techniques for applying logic to the two main sorts of rational
discourse: arguments and explanations.

Along the way, you
will be exposed to some basic philosophical considerations about the
nature of evidence, rationality, and truth. You will learn to think in
more sophisticated ways about your own reasoning and that of others,
whatever the subject matter of the reasoning. You will learn to be more
attentive to the ways that language is used to mask defective reasoning
and to conceal unstated presuppositions.

This class is for
students who want to improve their ability to think analytically about
any subject whatsoever, and to gain some acquaintance with the tools of
modern logic. It will improve the student’s ability to think
abstractly, to construct arguments, and to analyze arguments and
explanations.